Life and loves of Odie
by Elegos-Sirinial-Shamtul
Summary: When Odie's grilfriend dumps him seconds before he was about to propose, what will happen to the little genius, and who will pick up the pieces? OdiexOC
1. Chapter 1

**I shouldn't be writing this. I don't have time to write this. I should be revising for tomorrow. But if I don't get this out of my head, I'm gonna go mad. So heres the first chapter of "The life and loves of Odie"**

It had been three years to the day that Odie had first met Valerie. Three years of dedication, study, and until recently, battling a homicidal god of time on the side. But all that was behind him now, and Odie was looking forward to the future for the very first time. His acceptance to MIT several years early, had come as a shock only to him, and he still suspected that Hermes had played a very large part in getting him the scholarship. Still, Odie wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he was off to Boston next Fall. _And who said you shouldn't trust Greeks bearing gifts? _Odie thought, briefly remembering his ancestor, Odysseus, and the way he had defeated the city of Troy.

Then he remembered the way that he had first met Valerie. There were many theories on how to best impress a girl on the first date, but most would agree that saving her town, which has been imprisoned for over fifty years, from the grip of a tyrannical sphinx, saving both the girl, and her parents in the process, was almost certainly a good start.

Odie had asked her if he could take her to a movie, and she had been only too willing to accept. From there, it had blossomed. Their relationship had been open, and largely without secrets. _Though I never did get round to telling her about Calypso_, Odie thought. She knew that he was risking his life to save the world, and tried not to get too mad when he showed up late for dates, wearing a bandage, or ever so slightly singed clothes. And now he was no longer required to save the world on a constant basis, Odie new it was a time to look towards their relationship, and was, at long last ready to take the biggest step yet. Possibly the biggest step in the whole relationship.

He had arranged for them to meet in the poshest restaurant in New Olympia. He had paid the Violinist to play the song that had been playing when he had first met Valerie. All in all, he'd planning what he was going to say to her for over three weeks.

Absent mindedly, he fingered the box in his jacket pocket while he waited for Valerie to arrive. Nervously, he glanced at the clock on the wall. 6:54. Still 6 minutes until she was supposed to be here. But Valerie, like Odie, had never developed the skill of being "fashionably late," and would normally have been here by now.

After another two minutes had passed, Odie spotted her, walking towards him. He went to meet her, and planted a firm kiss on her lips, saying "Hey, I was beginning to think you weren't going to show."

She gave him a look that seemed to say _Do I look like the sort of person to leave you hanging? _"Come on, lets get a table." She said.

Odie had decided that he should ask her at the start, in order to reduce the number of things that might potentially go wrong during the date. _Like any good scientist,_ Odie thought, dryly,_ I reduce all variables to their minimum level._

They sat down, and ordered their meals. Odie reached inside his pocket, and opened his mouth, about to ask those four words: _Will you marry me?_

Before he got a chance to however, Valerie said "Odie, I need to talk to you about something." Odie was glad, he was terrified of what he was about to do, and didn't mind putting it off for a few minutes in the slightest.

"I think it's time that we stopped seeing each other." Valerie said, her voice cracking slightly, as if she was waiting for Odie to explode.

"Wh…Why?" was all Odie could manage to say. At least his tone was neutral, free of accusation.

"Because I just don't think that we're going anywhere. We've been going out for three years now, and yet, I sometimes feel that we're no closer then we were all that time ago, back when you… you know. I've been looking a lot to the future lately, and every time I do, I just don't seem to see US there, together."

"But…" Odie began, before his voice failed him. A million counter arguments swirled, uselessly through his brain, none of them connecting with his brain.

"Please, Odie, don't make this any harder. It's just that every time I come to think about my feelings for you, it's always the word affection, instead of the word love, that comes to mind." She said, with slow, careful deliberation.

"But if not love, then what was it? Why have we been together for so long?" Odie asked, helplessly.

"For me, it was need. After you saved me from the sphinx, I was faced with the prospect of a whole new world. And there you were, a boy who was willing to help me, who treated me with care and affection, and was almost the embodiment of the manners and social conduct I'd been raised with. You were like a stepping stone into the world for me."

"And what was it for me?" Odie hands had retreated out of his pockets, the ring box in them almost completely forgotten.

"For you, it was responsibility. Your whole life has been about being responsible, being a good person, even fighting the… you know." Even in such an emotionally charged moment, Valerie had the sense not to mention fighting the God of Time in a public place. "When you met me, I was vulnerable, and you took it upon yourself to take care of me. It's what you do, take care of people. But as admirable as that is, I need something more." She stood up, and turned to leave. Before going she said: "I'm sorry Odie. But someday, you'll thank me for this. This is the way it has to be."

With that, she was gone, and with her, Odie's heart.

**This is gonna be a 2/3 shot, so stay tuned. Reviewers will get to hug Odie, and the little guy really needs a hug, so please review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to the awesome: African Titan, reborn-fire-bird, Thunder-handicapy-godess and 4evacrazy. You all get to Odie hugs for reviewing.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this, astonishingly.**

It was three am when the full magnitude of what had transpired the night before finally broke over Odie. Like a wave, it had retreated, bided it's time to build in strength, before crashing down on top of Odie. Wipeout.

He had driven home in a semi-bemused state, unable to really form a cognitive thought beyond the necessities of the Highway Code. He had trudged indoors, and fallen asleep to the music on his iPod. Maybe it had been that his mind required time to process everything that happened in the last few hours, maybe it had been the fact that his playlist was full of memories of Valerie, but something had triggered a sub atomic explosion in his heart, and he felt as though you could put your fist through his torso, for all that seemed to be missing there.

It was, far and away, the most painful thing that had ever occurred to him. Even the many injuries he had received, fighting demons, monsters and Hera knows what else, had nothing on this. The pressure on his heart made the time Chiron had fallen on him seem as inconsequential as a light breeze. He knew one thing, with absolute certainty. _She was wrong. I loved her, regardless of what it was to her._

It was another three hours before Odie had recovered enough motor function to actually pull himself of his bed and check his answer phone messages. Sure enough, the little red light was blinking. _Maybe she's changed her mind! Maybe she's thought it through, maybe… _Eagerly, he thumped the button, preparing for the melodic sounds of Valerie's voice.

He was disappointed. Instead, it was his old friend Archie's dulcet, slightly nasal tones. "Hey, Odie, how you doing? Anyway, great news man, Atlanta and I, well, I know we were gonna go our separate ways, but she was about to leave, and I kind of called to her and she stopped, and well long story short, we're moving in together! I'm…I'm buzzing Odie, I just feel like I'm gonna explode if I don't talk to someone about this, so please Odie, call me. Oh, and how are things going with…" Odie slammed down on the button, to cut off the voice before it could utter that fatal word. _Valerie._

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The next few days, Odie lost himself in his life, committing everything he had to his studies, desperately trying to block out anything that might remind him of the girl he had fallen in love with. _The girl who had destroyed his heart. _But even the hardest problems he could find, the very uppermost calculus questions he could set himself, dealing with exponential trigonometric functions, and integrals of harmonic frequencies, even those utilizing the square roots of negative numbers, could not fully distract him from the fact that he felt like he was going to rip into two pieces.

The messages continued to build up on his answer phone: he'd programmed it to only blink if Valerie left a message, using voice recognition software in the event that she used a different number, and he had no interest in hearing anyone else's voice.

He stopped shaving, stopped eating to the point of near starvation. He just couldn't find the motivation to get up and get something to the fridge. At times, he could barely find the motivation to breathe.

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It was less then a week before the rest of the team had realized something was wrong, and they wasted no time in trying to help. Archie was down there like a shot, and hammered on Odie's door.

"Odie! I know you're in there! I can hear the music playing! Now open this door or I'll break it down dammit!"

He broke the door down, and tumbled through into the living room. He was greeted by the ultimate expression of untidiness. There were unfinished glasses of various drinks lying around the room, barely touched items food that appeared to have been picked up, had one bite taken, then discarded. Several were sporting impressive cultures of mould, and Archie was fairly certain that the one in the far corner was _breathing. _And the smell! Archie shuddered as he accidentally inhaled through the nose.

"Odie, what the hell? I know you geeks aren't big on organization, but I thought you liked to keep it nice an clean for when Valerie was over." He asked, holding his nose.

Odie's face turned into the light, and Archie got a good luck at the face of a man who has been utterly destroyed. He recoiled, taken aback at the haunted expression hung on the familiar features of his best friend.

"She... she left me Archie. She moved on. She… she never loved me, she said." Odie's voice cracked, and he sank back down to the couch.

"What a freak!" Archie exclaimed in an outrage. "How could she be so mind numbingly stupid not to see what a good guy you are. You're better off without her Odie."

Suddenly, Odie was on his feet, and screaming, louder then he had ever acted before.

"HOW DARE YOU? GET OUT OF HERE YOU TWAT! YOU COME IN HERE, WITHOUT INVITATION, BREAK DOWN MY DOOR, THEN TRY AND TAKE AN OPINION ON THINGS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND. GET OUT!"

"I'm not leaving until I know you're okay Odie. It's my duty as a friend."

Odie's voice dropped into a lower register then Archie would have believed him capable of producing.

"Get out." There was no uncertainty, no debate or inner conflict betrayed by that voice, and in spite of himself, Archie found himself retreating towards what has left of the front door.

"This isn't the end of it Odie. I'll be back. And not just me, the whole gang. We're gonna make sure that you're okay, whether you like it or not."

He turned and left, and Odie sank back onto the couch.

**Well, what did you think? Please review, please please please please.**

**Please. ;-)**


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